Open Road

Tuesday Jul 10th 2007

Radio - the new TV

Hats off to Channel 4 for its foray into the radio market.  Whilst much is always made of new television channels, the Digital Dividend Review and the digital switchover in 2012, it is nice to see more risks being taken in what has traditionally been seen as the less sexy area of broadcasting.  PRs know only too well that TV coverage is hard won and radio coverage, particularly regionally, is regarded as easier, less interesting and even less desirable.  Of course it’s true that numbers of viewers as opposed to listeners do bear out the ‘TV makes better publicity’ argument.  Yet convergence is well on the way to becoming a reality for more and more households (no doubt the main reason for Channel 4’s expansion into radio) and the digital revolution means that targeting specific audiences should become a more sophisticated exercise.  Put simply, publicity, or rather, debate around the issues of the day that would normally feature on the Today Programme won’t necessarily be of interest to ITV News audiences or be packaged in the same way.